When asked if they spoke their indigenous language, only about a third of the students attending an American Indian youth conference raised their hands.

When asked if they wanted to learn to speak it, nearly everyone else raised their hands.

Shirlee Silversmith, Indian education specialist in the State Office of Education, told youths at the Salt Palace Convention Center Friday they could make a difference by encouraging Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, to make funding for "indigenous heritage languages" a priority.

"Many languages are becoming extinct," Silversmith said, urging students to support a proposal to add $275,000 each year in ongoing funding to the Office of Education budget to develop curriculum for each of Utah's five principal indigenous languages and dialects: Navajo (Dine), Ute (Nooahpahgut), Paiute (Numic), and Goshute and Shoshone (Shoshoni). The proposal didn't make it onto a final priority list legislators are looking at.

"It was number 17 on the list. It didn't make the cut," said Toni Turk, federal programs director for the San Juan School District. "It's not too late to restore it."

Stephenson, who chairs the Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee, did not return phone calls seeking comment on whether or not the funding would likely be put back on the priority list before the Executive Appropriations Committee makes its final budget recommendations.

The San Juan District offers Navajo language courses in its K-12 curriculum and has a media center that is producing curricula materials. If the earmarked funding is restored, it would fund such efforts statewide.

"This is having an impact on students academically," Turk said, pointing to an analysis that showed for English proficient Navajo students, learning the Navajo language narrowed achievement gaps with non-Indian peers.

In language arts, the achievement difference between white and Navajo students narrowed from 22 percent to 15 percent; in math it went from 35 percent to 23 percent; and in science from 45 percent to 10 percent.

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com